I don't shy away from saying that I personally don't like this branch of thrillers, and even have some rejections. For a while, most thrillers have only one purpose: to unearth the original sin of human fear. And many films rely on this core to capture the favor of many people. Second, many films of this type pay too much attention to the language of the shots, ignoring the story and characters, and the rhythm has become their only magic weapon. Therefore, I have always paid little attention to this type of film. And why I choose Wen Ziren and his thrillers for commenting is actually because of the strong recommendation of my friends, which also made me open my treasure trove of thrillers from "Insidious 1" today.
1. Mature techniques and insufficient connotation
"Hidden 1" can be said to be Wen Ziren's famous work, and it is also a sign of the maturity of his film skills. Even if I have no six senses for the thriller genre, I have to admit that James Wing's mise-en-scene and rhythm control is outstanding in this field of Hollywood. There are no violent shots that make you feel uncomfortable, no plasma shots with vulgar techniques, and no porn shots that are not suitable for children. Just relying on the steady and steady camera language to grasp every pore of yours, people can't stop. Even if you know what the ending of the story is like, you will still follow the rhythm and watch it, and finally let out a sigh of relief.
However, it does not mean that there is no problem with Wen Ziren, who has formed his own unique style. The unique "Hidden 1" still has a bottleneck that cannot be broken through by this type of film. His storytelling and spiritual core are not enough in my opinion, because after I experienced sensory stimulation and high mental tension, thinking back and forth, "Latent 1" did not bring me any new insights. I don't blame the shortcomings of this type of film. Just like the self-healing brought to us by "Wolf Warrior 2" and "Operation Red Sea", they have done nothing wrong, but the spiritual pleasure they brought me is too short-lived. .
2. The source of fear is not ghosts, but oneself
Why do so many people like Wen Ziren's thriller series? Far from being as simple as the system of other people's ghosts, it can be said that he has well grasped the source of human fear, which is himself. In fact, fear is often not caused by external objective factors, but a spiritual medium that wraps around your spiritual world from the inside out. Looking at the expressions of the scenes in "Hidden 1", sometimes it is not because of the scenes inside that I am afraid, but I am immersed in the scene, and I start to imagine what would happen if these things happened around me? This kind of constant illusion, constantly changing the thinking of one's own role, will create an inexplicable fear invisibly. So, when I saw some foreshadowing at the beginning of "Hidden 1", I gradually understood that Wen's settings were not created out of nothing, but directly grasped the psychological assumptions of most people, breaking through layers of defense as you expected, Ultimately giving yourself the fear "dopamine" that fuels your adrenaline and makes your spirits high. The fear goes beyond the movie itself, it's you.
If "Hidden 1" is just a work to test the waters, and he is just a demonstration of part of Wen Ziren's film skills, then a series of subsequent works are the weights that established his status as a genre film. As a Chinese-American director, his existence may be much bigger than his films themselves. He used the usual methods of the United States to generate fear, but he also used the flowing eastern blood to transmit terror.
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